I think there’s a number of things to keep in mind:
Policing is very local, some local departments are very unprofessional and have poor hiring and training standards.
I once heard an NPR interview of someone who had been with the NYPD when they started doing a psychological evaluation of candidates, he said the first batch of testing they did something like 55% of all applicants tested as having psychopathic tendencies. Most police departments do not do this type of testing or screening even today. I think it’s a decent likelihood because of the power, access to weapons and societal prestige the “wrong type of person” is frequently attracted to policing. With poor filtering processes to keep those people out, a great many of them go on to become career cops.
Some towns do use the police force as primarily a revenue generator, with significant pressure to generate as much in ticket and citation fees as possible.
I watched two different videos from different officers. In the first, the girl in pink was unarmed and went to talk to the police when they first arrived. Then Bryant, the guy, and the girl that got kicked in the head by the guy came down from the house fighting right in front of the police. Bryant then pulled out a knife and went directly after the girl in pink.
The shooting officer showed up around this time, and then we see from his perspective the girl getting her head kicked buy the guy and Bryant winding up and running over to the girl in pink, knife in hand. He ordered her to drop the knife. She didn’t and he shot her. This is the footage I watched.
So I’ll ask you, if Bryant called the cops, why didn’t she let them handle things once they got there?
I’ve not seen the other video, do you have a link?
Is that in question? You say this as though it is. My understanding is that it was her that called. Do you have other information that contradicts this?
I do not know the answer to this, unlike yourself, who claims to know her motive and therefore appropriate punishment.
You asked me if I can explain why she called the cops just to assault someone when they arrived. I can’t but it doesn’t really matter. I’m putting that question back on you.
The fact is the cops were already there and Bryant tired to kill the girl in pink right in front of them.
But that takes effort. It’s much easier to decide that all cops are racist pigs with hair triggers OR minorities always have it coming to them and cops are risking their lives to save us.
The local Columbus paper is reporting that it is not established who placed the 911 call:
Woods said Wednesday that police had received a 911 call about the attempted stabbing that brought officer to the scene. Police had not established as of Wednesday who placed that call.
I don’t want to speak definitively but it sounded like Bryant was in foster care and may have had mental health issues, even if she did call the police it doesn’t preclude her acting violently after the fact. My impression is she was potentially a foster child that had special behavioral needs/issues and difficult or unpredictable behavior wouldn’t be unexpected. I haven’t seen firm enough reporting on that to state it factually yet, so keep that in mind.
I’m not understanding why it matters who called the police. The video clearly shows Bryant in full swing trying to stab the girl in pink who was already isolated by that time. Bryan ran to her, knife clearly in hand.
It didn’t matter who called. It just really stinks the police officer wasn’t trained and equipped with a taser instead of a gun. I don’t really blame the officer for this one, but boy it sucks that lethal force was deployed where other solutions could have been available and trained for. So I blame the system that another kid was killed when it could have been avoided with better training and different equipment.
We really do need to address policing in the US. Clearly it is badly screwed up, especially in cities. It was terrible 50 years ago and apparently 100 years ago and really from the beginning.
The use of force experts I saw comment on this in the local newspaper in Columbus both said a taser isn’t considered appropriate for countering lethal force when imminent danger is involved. So there’s not really any police departments out there in America training people to use tasers in situations like this. Tasers are much less effective at ending a threat than a firearm.
I’m not sure how I’m being evasive, I never claimed to know her motive. You’re the one that asked me why would she do what she did if she was the one that called the cops.
All I know for sure is that Bryant tried to kill another person right in front of the police. Did she deserve to die for that? I’d say yes.
People think tasers are magic, it’s the same kind of thinking that makes people say just shoot them in the leg, or arm. Most people don’t really know what they are talking about when it comes to these things, they have been trained by Hollywood to believe certain things are true.
In their mind taser equals automatic knockout. Shot in the arm or leg? They’ll drop the weapon, and the police will be able to cuff them, but be just fine after that. Maybe put a little bandage on it. Hit a on the head with the butt of a rifle so that they are out cold for a few hours? Its fine, they’ll just wake up and be fine after that.
rather than answer, that’s pretty much the definition of being evasive.
Actually you don’t know that for sure.
But you are quite the one to judge who deserves to live and who deserves to die.
Even if I agreed that the only way to protect others was to shoot her, I still wouldn’t agree that she “deserved” to die, only that that was an unfortunate consequence of how things played out.
What you claimed in this post is not true, at least not of those of us discussing this here.
I mean, the passive aggressive formulation of “people think” is unfalsifiable, as I’m sure that there are some people that think that. But, unless you are actually willing to point to those in this thread that think that, all you are doing is making specious statements.
So, do you actually think that anyone in this thread thinks the things that you have so eloquently laid out here, or are you just blathering away uselessly?
Such as an untrained 13 year old girl with a knife will “definitely” kill someone who is actively defending themselves?
If the cop didn’t have a wonder tool of 1,000 uses in their holster, they would’ve had to wade in and break up the fight, and everyone would likely have survived. Or do you think people die every time there’s a fight involving a knife?
I’m not sure if you saw the video, and I see you’re saying now she is 13 all of the sudden. I saw a big girl, so some power there, swinging a big ass knife to the guts of the girl in pink.
A definite kill shot, I don’t know, but why take the chance to see if it would have been?
I’m not claiming to be an expert either, but a shot to the leg or arm may not stop a in motion attack like what was seen in the video. The attack could still land, and then the attacker could still easily die from a wound to the leg or arm. But now you have 2 dead girls.
Center mass is known to put people down, and is an easier target.